


Queens of Noise

by cassandralied



Category: Batgirl (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Punk, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Bisexual Harper Row, Civilian Harper, Civilian Stephanie, F/F, Lesbian Cassandra Cain, Robin!Tim, batgirl!cass, harpercass - Freeform, nobody in the dcu is hetero and i have receipts, punk harper x preppy cass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21878194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandralied/pseuds/cassandralied
Summary: When Cassandra Cain-Wayne, current Batgirl, begins attending school for the first time, she meets scholarship student Harper Row and kinda sorta eventually falls in love.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain/Harper Row, Garfield Logan/Raven
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Queens of Noise

The girl on the stage is stunning.

She’s light and color in a way Cass has never seen it before, all streaky blue and purple hair under sultry cheap lights, all black lipstick and screamo, growling into the mic in a way that shouldn’t be so sexy, but is.

Maybe Stephanie notices Cass staring because she says, “Come on, I’ll take you backstage to meet her.”

Of course, Cassandra says _no_ , but Stephanie grabs her hand, and if Cass wanted to she could flip the blonde over and have her pinned in under a minute but she doesn’t, she lets Stephanie drag her along.

The lead singer, the blue-haired girl, is chugging a bottle of water when Stephanie approaches her. “Great show as usual, Row,” Stephanie says, confident. The lead singer finishes the water bottle and tosses it off to the side.

“Hey, Steph. Glad you could make it.” Her eyes are bright green and lined with black and they find Cass, curious but friendly. “Hi, I’m Harper.”

“Cassandra,” Cassandra says quietly. She smiles, tentatively, and finds that it fits her face. Harper smiles back. She offers a pale hand, with black chipped fingernails and covered in chunky rings. “Can I call you Cass?”

Cass is staring. The simple trust in the gesture overwhelms her and she wants to cry. Stephanie clears her throat, and Cass remembers to take Harper’s hand, which is soft, with calluses only from working hard and not from fighting or killing. “Yes.”

“Well, it’s nice tomeet you, Cass.”

“You too.”

Harper tilts her head. “You have an interesting way of speaking, if you don’t mind my saying. Where are you from?”

“Harper, don’t be a bitch,” Stephanie is saying immediately. She slings one arm around Cass’s shoulder’s protectively, and Cass remembers to let go of Harper’s hand. “Cassandra’s the new Wayne kid.”

“It’s okay,” Cass says softly, and it is, because there’s no cruelty in Cass’s eyes. “English isn’t…my first language. I am…from China.”

“Cool,” Harper smiles. “I’m taking Remedial Chinese. _Nihao_.”

Cass doesn’t know the word -English is her first language, her first language that isn’t death and killing and for the years they’d lived in China Cain had never taught her the language, but she keeps the hesitance out of her voice as she repeats the new word. “ _Nihao_.”

 _“God, Harper, are you flirting again?”_ The boy who’d been playing the guitar approaches them. He’s broad-shouldered, but his eyes are trustworthy, and his body language is friendly.

“Duke, this is the new kid. Meet Cass.”

“Hi,” Duke smiles broadly. “Did you like the set, Cass?”

By _set_ , she assumes they’re referring to the show. “It was beautiful.”

Maybe she said something wrong, because Stephanie laughs, and Duke’s smile broadens. “Beautiful, huh?”

Harper seems to sense that Cass is suddenly uncomfortable, because she puts a hand on Duke’s shoulder. “It’s just that they don’t usually call us beautiful,” she explains to Cass with a smile, like she’s telling a secret. “Disorderly, punk, unhinged…those are more common words.”

“Street kids with terrible taste who are only here on scholarship?” Duke adds, and he and Harper high-five.

“I’ll introduce you to the rest of the band later if you’re interested,” Harper says kindly. “You can join us at lunch.”

Cassandra smiles, and repeats the word she’s heard Stephanie using. She thinks it’s an affirmative. “Cool.”

The rest of the band dresses in the same punk style as Harper and Duke. The drummer is Conner Kent, a transfer student from Metropolis. The bassist is Raven Roth, who, despite her scary black makeup and criticizing gaze, offers Cass half of her sandwich. Garfield Logan is on the keyboards.

“Do you like music, Cass?” Raven asks. Garfield’s head is in her lap, and she’s playing with his green hair idly, as if she doesn’t even know that she’s doing it. Cass wonders what that sort of affection feels like -Bruce cares for her, but he’s always so careful never to overstep, and Cain’s touches had only hurt.

It feels nice to be able to tell the truth for once. “I like…to dance.”

“See, I know a music aficionado when I see her,” Harper says, and bites into her chocolate bar, smearing her lipstick. Cass takes in the new word: _af-ic-io-na-do_ , and reminds herself to ask Barbara about it when she gets home.

Raven looks interested. “What kind of dance do you do?”

“You’re the kid who asked Ms. Doe about a ballet class, aren’t you?” Conner interrupts. Raven glares at him, but he seems used to it. “I remember now. My cousin Kara wanted me to talk to you. She’s been trying to introduce a dancing elective for two years now.”

“Kara?”

“Blonde, sporty, insufferable. She’s in the year below us,” Conner says with a long-suffering sigh, as if that explains everything.

“You seem like you’d be good at ballet,” Harper says. She licks chocolate off her lips idly. Her tongue is very pink. Cass tries not to lean forward.

Conner snorts, and Garfield giggles a little. Even Raven cracks a smile.

Cass assumes it’s at her, and sort of recoils into herself a little, shoulders hunched, eyes wide, but then Harper says, “What? I was just complimenting her?”

“Gayyyy,” sings Conner, and Cass doesn’t really know what that word means either, only that it’s directed at Harper, not at her, and more importantly that it doesn’t seem intended to hurt.

“Puh-lease. You have a boyfriend,” Harper retorts. She picks a few strands of grass from the ground and tosses them at him, and then they’re wrestling like brother and sister.

“Eat dirt, country boy!” Harper yells.

“They…do this often?” Cass gathers up her courage enough to ask.

Raven smirks at her. “You could say that. How else do Neanderthals settle things around here?”

“You’re a bitch, Rae,” Garfield says cheerfully, and Raven leans down and kisses the top of his head. “Keep ‘em coming, babe.”

“Conner’s going to win,” Garfield says to Cass, maybe so she doesn’t feel excluded. “He’s on the wrestling team.”

“But Harper fights dirty,” Raven adds, just as Harper tosses dirt into Conner’s eyes with an _“AHA!”_. Their form is terrible. Bruce would hate it.

Cassandra can’t stop smiling.


End file.
